Coach Development

We’ve probably all heard the term “growing pains” before, often used to describe the aching that children and young people have in their legs as their muscles accelerate rapidly is size and strength as part of their natural development process. As adults we might also feel muscular discomfort after a workout, as our muscles repair and get bigger and stronger. There’s “no gain without pain” is another commonly used term, and so we seem to know on some level that gain, growth, strength etc. can come with an element of pain or discomfort. However, at the same time, it is ...

Question: When should you start developing your coaching business? Answer: All the time! As business owners, we need to be looking at our business regularly. It doesn’t matter if we have just started out in our business, if we are long-time solopreneurs, if we run a limited company and have done so for a while, or it’s a part time business (or side hustle). However, the depth that we need to be thinking about, and how our business plan might look, will often depend on where we are in our professional life. Are you just starting out? How many years ...

Put Your Oxygen Mask on First Having just returned to work after the luxury of about six weeks off, I have been reminding myself, that in fact it was not a ‘luxury’ to take six weeks off, it was something I wanted to do and is and was part of my overall plan of looking after myself – what I call self-care. I want to remind us that, in order to do our best work, we need to build and create resilience and reserves in our life and that includes self-care. In today’s world, especially post-COVID, there are many people ...

In a previous article called Science and Art of Coaching, I shared a model by Michael Grinder that inspired the name of our ICF accredited coaching education programme. In his model, Michael shares how, as we develop, we initially focus on the “science” or technique of what we are learning. In this phase, we are seeking to become knowledgeable, confident, and proficient at knowing “what” to do and “how”. As we become increasingly competent with our foundational understanding of our craft, we then transition towards becoming more artistic in our work. At this stage, “when” and even “if” to do ...

The question: “What do I do with clients who talk a lot?” is quite common in both Mentor Coaching and Coaching Supervision conversations. In this blog, I will take a look at various aspects of this question and how we can most effectively engage with a verbose client. First be Curious and seek to Understand The first thing to do, is not a ‘do’ at all, it’s a ‘be’! It could be very easy to assume why the client is talking so much and we know the danger of assumptions in coaching! It is therefore really important that we remain ...

Here are a couple of big questions: Do you have a ‘live’ Coaching Practice and are you practising coaching regularly? If you are not practising your coaching regularly, how are you keeping fit for purpose? If you are practising regularly, are you getting feedback on your coaching to ensure you haven’t slipped into any poor habits. Either way it’s so important that we use our skills. The adage ‘use it or lose it’ really applies. Why is it important as a coach to ensure we have a ‘live’ coaching practice if we want to be called a professional coach? As ...

What is the Grey Space? There has always been a boundary that coaches navigate between coaching and counselling or therapy, or indeed other professional services such as consultancy or mentoring. Knowing how to effectively manage that boundary is important for ensuring that a client is in fact receiving the most suitable, appropriate, and helpful professional service given their wants, needs and circumstances etc. However, whilst this boundary has always existed, there is a noticeable trend of coaches increasingly experiencing conversations with clients around topics such as burn out, stress,  and anxiety. In some cases, the need to refer a coaching ...

Often one of the things that people say coaching is about, is that its  providing ‘feedback’ to our clients. How I like to characterise that is that feedback is like holding a mirror up to our client, in support of them, to see what perhaps we and others see in them that they may not see themselves… Sometimes, and perhaps many times, we don’t always see our strengths and attributes that make us who we are. By holding up that mirror and offering feedback through an acknowledgement, we are in my belief, acknowledging the person and celebrating who they are ...

The term ‘Reflective Practice” is being increasingly used in the context of coaching and is explicitly referenced in ICF Core Competency 2: Embodies a Coaching Mindset: “Develops an ongoing reflective practice to enhance one’s coaching”. Learning to reflect in order to improve one’s own practice is perceived as important across a range of professions, from teaching to counselling, and from management to clinical work. Knowing the self and managing the self are key skills for every coach. This self-awareness enables us to be in best service of our clients. In this article we consider what reflective practice is, why it ...